Heinrich Popow
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Heinrich Popow (born July 14, 1983 in Abai , Kazakh SSR , Soviet Union ) is a former German athlete in the starting class T42 , specializing in sprint and long jump . He is a multiple Paralympic winner , multiple world and European champion with a total of 29 medals and the current world record holder in the 100 meter sprint and long jump.
Sporting successes
Heinrich Popow began his competitive sports career in 2001 at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen . The starting point was an invitation to athletics training at Bayer 04, where Popow impressed with very good run times. Later he trained under coach Karl-Heinz Düe together with the heptathletes around the Olympian Jennifer Oeser . At the World Athletics Championships in Lille 2002, Heinrich Popow won bronze in the long jump and established himself at the top of the world. At his first Paralympics in Athens in 2004 , he won three bronze medals over 100 and 200 meters and in the long jump. Popow increased his performance over 100 meters at the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008 and won the silver medal with a time of 12.98 s. Heinrich Popow finally won gold over 100 meters at the 2012 Paralympics in London. In advance, Popow had declared victory over the 100 meters as his sporting goal. In the Olympic Stadium he prevailed in 12.40 s against the Australian Scott Reardon and his German teammate Wojtek Czyz . At Bayer Leverkusen's integrative athletics festival in July 2013, Popow set a new world record over 100 meters with a permissible tail wind of 1.2 meters / second in 12.11 seconds. He improved Earle Connor's 17-year-old record by three hundredths of a second. At the 2016 Paralympics in Rio , Popow won the gold medal in the long jump in a new Paralympic record of 6.70 meters. This was only a few centimeters less than his world record a few days earlier on August 20th at the athletics meeting in Hachenburg with 6.77 meters. Popow won silver at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin. Then he ended his career.
Childhood and career
Heinrich Popow and his family came to Germany from Kazakhstan at the age of seven . He grew up in Hachenburg ( Westerwald ). When he was nine years old, doctors amputated his left leg up to the thigh ( knee disarticulation ) as a result of Ewing's sarcoma in the left calf. In interviews, the athlete emphasizes that the amputation was more difficult for his parents than it was for himself. His greatest concern at the time was that he could no longer play football as he had before. Heinrich Popow describes himself as a sports enthusiast. After his amputation, he tried various sports until he came to athletics in 2001. Since then he has started for TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Heinrich Popow worked part-time as an IT system administrator at Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH until the end of July 2014 . In August 2014 he began training as an orthopedic technician.
Youth work
In addition to his sporting career, Heinrich Popow does motivation and youth work. He visits those affected in hospitals and motivates them to exercise after the amputation. In his club TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen he is a mentor for several young athletes and gives them tips for their sporting career. In order to reach young athletic talents, Popow relies heavily on social media.
Popularity and positioning
Heinrich Popow is one of the most famous German athletes on Facebook. The number of his fans is growing steadily. With his clear statements he became "probably the most popular Paralympian in Germany" ( Ronny Blaschke :). Often quoted by the media, Heinrich Popow became a sought-after voice in Paralympic sport . Overall, Popow advocates better promotion of Paralympic mass sports . The man from Leverkusen calls for “respect and recognition” ( sport1.de :) for Paralympic athletes; at the same time he demands a professionalization of sport. In the discussion about higher premiums for Paralympic athletes, Popov defended the lower premiums compared to Olympic winners. He justified his statements with the weaker competition within the Paralympics. Popow also spoke out in favor of separating the Olympics and Paralympics , because if they were merged, the Paralympics would be overshadowed by the Olympics. In January 2014 Heinrich Popow was presented as one of eight testimonials from the National Anti-Doping Agency Germany . Under the slogan "Give everything, take nothing", he advocates clean sport. In addition to Heinrich Popow, athletes such as Vladimir Klitschko , Anni Friesinger and Tobias Angerer are involved in the campaign.
In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Heinrich Popow took a stand in the debate about joint competitions between disabled and non-disabled people . From his point of view, the Paralympic movement deserves independent competitions in order to preserve the diversity of sports and athletes and their personal backgrounds. After his lower- leg amputee team-mate Markus Rehm won the long jump title at the 2014 German Championships in Ulm, but the German Athletics Association (DLV) had not nominated him for the European Athletics Championships , an intense debate broke out over whether athletes who compete with a prosthesis, have an advantage over non-disabled people. In 2017 he took part as a candidate in the 10th season of the dance show Let's Dance and finished in sixth place. His dance partner was Kathrin Menzinger .
Nominations and Awards
In 2002 he was awarded the special prize for disabled sports as part of the Junior Sportsman of the Year . Heinrich Popow was honored several times with the silver bay leaf for his medals at the Paralympics . This award is given by the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany. In November 2012 Heinrich Popow received another award for his success in London. In 2011 he was one of the most promising candidates for the Disabled Sportsman of the Year election. After his success at the Paralympics in London, Popow was nominated again for this award in 2012, but the table tennis player Jochen Wollmert received the award .
Web links
- Official website of Heinrich Popow
- Official Facebook page of Heinrich Popow
- Heinrich Popow's official Twitter profile
- Athlete profile at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen
- Athlete profile at the IPC
- Athlete profile of the sports show
Individual evidence
- ↑ passion.ottobock.de: world champion in training
- ↑ a b c süddeutsche.de: "You are welcome to put me in front of the cart September 10, 2012.
- ↑ spiegel.de: "If it goes wrong, I have to get in the face" September 7, 2012.
- ↑ "Press release: Heinrich Popow breaks world record over 100 meters" (PDF; 59 kB) July 12, 2013.
- ↑ Rio 2016: Gold medal in long jump with Paralympic record
- ↑ Hachenburg Athletics Meeting: World record in long jump
- ↑ Popow rounds off a successful career
- ↑ Interview with Heinrich Popow in the ZDF Mittagsmagazin September 19, 2012.
- ↑ passion.ottobock.com: Success story with prosthesis
- ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Heinrich Popow sprints to gold September 10, 2012.
- ↑ www.heinrich-popow.de ( Memento of the original dated August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ fluter.de: On one leg. Back to life with sport ( memento of the original from November 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. August 27, 2012.
- ↑ a b netzathleten.de: "I didn't want to finish second." Interview with Heinrich Popow ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. October 2, 2012.
- ↑ Heinrich Popow sprints to gold, in: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, September 10, 2012, ( http://www.ksta.de/paralympics-2012/100-meter-finale-heinrich-popow-sprintet-zu-gold, 16989378,17212736.html )
- ↑ Why two legs? "I would refuse", in: sport1.de, August 30, 2012, ( http://www.sport1.de/de/paralympics/artikel_606298.html )
- ↑ Popov: "Not the level as Olympic athletes". In: focus.de . August 28, 2012.
- ↑ Great response to the new NADA initiative. ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release. National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), January 29, 2014.
- ↑ SZ article from August 6, 2014
- ↑ Leverkusen.com: "Silbernes Lorbeerblatt" by the Federal President for five TSV medal winners on March 17th, 2005.
- ↑ Sportschau.de: Vote the disabled athlete of the year
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Popow, Heinrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German athlete |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 14, 1983 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Abai , Kazakh SSR , Soviet Union |